Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Haiku chicken

Ok, I’m naming this weirdly. But you know me, I am weird – but good. Over the course of several days I conjured up what I expected to be a comfort food dish with attitude. It worked. The inspiration came from my mom’s 50’s-style pot roast, using canned soup concentrate. It may be trailer park trash food but it’s good.

Why 5 chicken legs? Simple; that’s what was in the discounted package I got a Safeway. 6 legs would also be fine without any adjustments.

Given the recipe’s title, a poem is called for:

Take some chicken legsDo it in chilly weatherBring warmth to your house

Slice each drumstick through the thick parts of the meat 2 times on each side. Brine the chicken (very important, unless it’s not). In 2 cups of water dissolve 2 tbsp kosher salt (or 1 ½ tbsp table salt), 1 tbsp black pepper and 1 tsp red pepper flakes. Put the drumsticks into a 1 gallon freezer bag. Add the brining liquid. Squeeze out as much air as possible. Put the bag into some container (just in case of leakage) and refrigerate for 2-5 hours. Remove the chicken from the bag, rinse well and dry thoroughly with paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.

In a pot suitable for the oven, heat the oil over medium. Add the vegetables, mixing them around in some sort of uniform fashion. Sprinkle with celery salt and pepper.

Lay the drumsticks on the vegetables. Pour the soup concentrate over the drumsticks. Add the chicken stock to the pan. Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 1 ½ hours, until the chicken is cooked to 170 degrees.

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The book - it's very special

Many folks have been reading this and seeing how much of a story it is as opposed to just a compendium of recipes. To order go to http://www.createspace.com/3695950 or to Amazon, where you search for my name, not the title.

An honor from the Denver Post

I was surprised by this entry online from Tucker Shaw, former food editor for the Denver Post:

"Denver is lousy with home-cooking blogs, but one that isn't lousy is The Obsessive Chef, where avid (OK, obsessive) home cook Stephen Crout experiments with and offers tips on recipes from a variety of sources. One recent triumph: succulent, crisp-skinned "Broasted Chicken." Visit theobsessivechef.blogspot.com for that recipe and dozens more."